Life & Work with Abigail Sanford of North Hollywood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Abigail Sanford.

Hi Abigail , can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
When I started college at the University of Tampa I was a biology major, but I wasn’t as interested in the classes as I had hopedI would be. I remember in my 1st semester one of the teachers said the age old line “look to your left and look to your right, one of you wont be here by the end” and I genuinely had the thought “ohh no, I think it’s me”. Almost all of the friends I was making were film or other art majors, I had never really considered a career in film growing up, but after helping on just a few of my friends film project I realized it was where I wanted to be. I fell in love with the creativity and collaboration that happens on a film set. I would help build props, find wardrobe pieces, I even made custom curtains by hand for one short film. I was enamored with the idea of creating the world for actors to play in. I ended up switching my degree to communications, which allowed me to take a lot of film classes along with other art, literature, writing, and even some management classes, I have always loved learning and exploring new ideas. After graduating in 2012 I spent a summer in NYC working as a production assistant on sketch shows for the website CollegeHumor, it was a lot of young filmmakers and small crews, you got to wear a lot of hats, which was perfect for someone like me trying to figure out exactly where I wanted to be within the film industry. I kept working with that company when I moved to LA and was able and was able to change position’s into the art department fairly quickly. I joined the Art Coordinators union IATSE Local 871 is 216, which allowed me to work on TV shows like Lethal weapon with much bigger budgets than I had ever seen before. Art coordinating is a great position to really learn how bigger projects function because you are the person that keeps and sends all the information from the Production designer/art department to other departments. At that point I knew I wanted to become a Set Decorator, and it was a great way to observe the flow and learn the expectations of each role, while also getting health insurance. I continued to work a mix of union Art Coordinator jobs and non union Set Decorator jobs until 2019 when I was able to join IATSE Local 44 as a Set Decorator. I love set decoration, you are constantly learning and researching, and you really can help tell the story through the characters surrounding. Currently I am set decorating on the show 911 for ABC. I started working on the show at the beginning of season 7. It has been an incredible opportunity, I have gotten to collaborate on a lot of really amazing sets and have been presented with fun challenges, like a cruise ship that flips upside down. It’s also my first show with this many stunts and special effects, so its been really amazing getting to work with those departments more.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
For me film industry has been 80% hard work, 10% who you know, and 10% timing. I feel very fortunate that those 3 elements so far have lined up and been in sync. When I moved out to LA in 2012 it was in the middle of the youtube boom, young artist had more funding to make short form content than ever before, and it really gave me a lot of opportunities to learn so much and move up within the art department quickly. Once I started working in art department on short films and sketches for sites like CollegeHumor and FunnyOrDie, my brother Corey (who had already been in LA and working in TV development for 10 years) helped me get an Art Department PA job on the pilot for the TV show Marry Me, where I met the Art Director for Stitchers, he brought me on to Stitchers as an Art Coordinator and I was able to join IATSE 871 in 2016. At that point the streaming platforms were trying to make as much content for their sites as possible and I was able to bank health insurance hours with my union, and save a little money as an Art Coordinator and then work my way up as a non union Set Decorator in between union projects. The hard part about joining a lot of the IATSE unions is you need to work 30 days on a union show in order to join, but it’s very hard to get hired on a union show if you aren’t in the union. In 2019 was hired to decorate on the show Astronomy Club for Netflix, it was a Tier 0 show which meant that the budget was small enough that they were allowed to hire non union workers, but the days counted as union days. It was low budget and required a lot of creative problem solving to deliver the amount of sets they needed, but it was so rewarding to work on an incredibly funny show like that. I joined Local 44 at the end of 2019. I worked through most of the pandemic as an art coordinator and In 2021 was hired to decorate on the film Empire Waist, an incredible coming of age film, and it really started my union decorating career up again. Now I mostly work in TV, in 2022 I decorated the weddings for season 2 of Love is Blind, and season 2 of the show With Love. I then went on to decorate the final season of Mayans on FX, where I met the Designer Marco Niro, we clicked really well and I become a part of his amazing team. Mayans finished shooting the first day of the writers strike in 2023. I was able to string together enough commercials to get me through the strike and less than a week after the strike ended Marco called and I was hired to decorate on the show 911 and have been there ever since with the entire Art Department, Construction and, Set Dec team from Mayans.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
As a union Set decorator here in LA, I belong to IATSE Local 44. I am the head of the set decoration department and my department’s job job is to find, select, and arrange all of the set dressing under the guidance of the Production Designer and Director, while also working with the producers to stay on budget. If we were building a kitchen set for example it is my job teams job to find, bring, and arrange all the furniture, art, curtains, appliances, containers and food in the pantry, the plates and cups they use… basically everything on the set that isn’t a part of the building or a specific hero prop my team finds and brings. What I love about this job is every set is different, to give just a few examples, I’ve gotten decorated biker bars for FX’s Mayans M.C., a fashion show for the feature Empire Waist, The Battle of New Oceans for the feature Synchronic, a cruise ship casino that flips upside on season 7 of 911, a science lab with an explosion for season 8 of 911 and 5 weddings for Love is Blind season 2. Every project is a new world, a new story, and I love being a part of making it all come to life. On a show like 911 I have 2 buyers and a team of set dressers along with a coordinator and a PA to help me make it all happen, it can be a busy schedule especially since we are normally filming on multiple sets each week, sometimes running two filming units at once. We work 10-12+ hour days in the film industry, and if you are not careful it is easy to let that consume your whole life. As a department head I strive to make sure that everyone on my teams feels like they can have a life outside of work. I want everyone to see their families and be there for the important moments in their personal lives. I think fostering that environment has allowed me to curate a really talented group of people.

What’s next?
I’m currently in position I want to be in within the film industry. I love set decorating, and being on the show 911, feels like a dream come . There are always a few really big sets every season, last season I got to decorate a huge lab that we built on a sound stage, and I can’t wait for this upcoming season to begin airing on ABC so everyone can see what we have been up to the last 2 months. I hope to stay on 911 as long as they’ll have me, the cast and crew are all kind people and wonderful to work with, and I absolutely love the team I have in my department, I hope to be able to continue working with my team on future projects. I love working in comedy and hope to get back there at some point, but my goals right now are to continue creating a work environment where my team feels valued and like they can have a healthy work like balance.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://abigailsanford.work/

Image Credits
All Photos taken by Abigail Sanford